Wooster Manor residents, families fearful

John Pirro

Updated 12:29 am, Monday, September 16, 2013

Wooster Manor in Danbury, Conn., is a senior housing complex, shown here Monday, Sept. 9, 2013. Residents are very concerned about a recent home invasion and assault of an 85-year-old woman.
Photo: Michael Duffy

DANBURY -- Ana Caba's parents live at the Wooster Manor senior citizen apartments, so when she heard about the recent home invasion robbery that sent an 85-year-old woman to the hospital, she immediately began to worry.

"I'm very concerned, especially about my father," Caba said as she arrived for a Sunday afternoon visit to the West Wooster Street complex where her parents have been living since May. "He's blind, and when (another tenant) lets a visitor in the front door, anybody could follow them in."

"A lot of people are worried," Anne Alvarez said. "It could have happened to any of them."

City and Housing Authority officials have promised to increase security at Wooster Manor after the victim, who had lived there for some 20 years, was pulled from her bed and brutally beaten just after midnight on Sept. 7.

The victim, who suffered a broken hip, concussion and other injuries, has since been discharged from Danbury Hospital, but hasn't returned to her seventh-floor apartment, other tenants said.

Donny Jackson, a 26-year-old Danbury man, has been charged with the attack. He is a relative of another Wooster Manor resident, according to police and other tenants.

Jackson is being held in lieu of $1 million bond and is scheduled to appear at state Superior Court in Danbury on Sept. 26.

Among the improvements promised by officials are the installation of cameras on each floor of the building, more police patrols and better lighting.

After a previous string of burglaries, the Housing Authority installed new locks on the doors of each apartment, said one 11-year resident, who didn't want to give her name.

"But it didn't help last week," she pointed out.

"People are afraid," said Laura Coles, a tenant for 12 years. "We're old and we frighten easily. We can't help ourselves."

Some residents want a guard at the front entrance to Wooster Manor. At present, a sliding door automatically allows visitors into the foyer, where they use an electronic key to gain entry or are buzzed into the lobby by a tenant.

"Security needs to be beefed up," said Cleveland Moffett. "I'd like to see a guard checking people coming in and making sure they belong here."

The problem with the existing system, said Shameka Coles, Laura Coles' granddaughter, is that when tenants buzz in visitors from their apartments, they can't see if other people -- possibly harboring bad intentions -- follow guests inside.

At one time, a security camera system allowed tenants to see who was sounding their buzzer on a small screen in their apartments. But the system kept breaking and was eventually abandoned, said Mark Mocarski, who has lived at Wooster Manor for 16 years.

"If they put in new cameras, they're going to raise our rent," Mocarski predicted. "But if you make the improvements, you can raise my rent. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else."

Not all the tenants are fearful, including one woman who said she has lived at Wooster Manor for five years.